


The Claw Machine

by sanctum_c



Series: Aerti Week 2019 [3]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dreams, F/F, Gold Saucer (Compilation of FFVII), Prophetic Dreams, Prophetic Visions, Sharing a Bed, Visions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:21:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27140344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: Aeris wants to win Tifa a plushie in the Gold Saucer arcade. Then things get... strange.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart
Series: Aerti Week 2019 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1981054
Kudos: 9





	The Claw Machine

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'a vision seen in sleep'

The cavernous hall of the Gold Saucer lay ahead of Aeris. The staircase descended down from the entrance to the Chocobo races, the transport tubes leading to the rest of the complex alongside. At the bottom of the stairs was Tifa. Aeris smiled and Tifa smiled back. They linked hands and entered the arcade.

The claw machine offered plushies of Chocobos and Moogles; Tifa would love one. Aeris pushed the coins into the slot and navigated the claw. There was a trick to these; if she was lucky, it would work this time.

Aeris jammed her finger down on the capture button; the claw descended, metallic fingers splaying wider and wider. Contraction, the claws closed around a Moogle plushie and rose. Tension; would the claw remain closed or-

The claw halted at the top of its ascent, still clenching tight. The blue sphere in its grasp mottled with green and white. A tremble in the ground beneath her feet and the claw surged upwards, dark purple fingers reaching, grasping, clutching. Higher and higher it ascended though time and space beyond imagining.

The hand contracted, clutching tight something red, fire and flames pouring from it. The hand lowered, stars blurring and it fell back towards the blue sphere.

The arm, colossal, vast, taller than the Gold Saucer rose impossibly high into the sky, the end lost – for now – in the blue haze of a clear day. Tifa shouted something, but Aeris could not hear. There was only the arm stretched beyond the heavens and it’s movement; lowering down into the ground. Any moment the red sphere would be visible. The arm would pull it down to the ground until they met.

What then?

Tifa yelled; Aeris dragged her attention from the purple arm. The stars whirled and Tifa receded. She clung to a chunk of rock, tumbling end over end, moving away from Aeris. She screamed something, distance too impossibly vast and reached out. Aeris stretched, straining.

A little further-

A mere few more parsecs and she could save her-

A jolt and Aeris’s eyes opened. Confusion. Dim room, too warm, head spinning, thirsty, needing to pee, heart hammering in her chest, faint pumpkin scent in the air. She sat up. Flicker of light around the edges of the curtain and a distant rumble of thunder. The room at the Gold Saucer. Her room. If she got up now, the floorboards would creak and wake up-

“Aeris?” Tifa rolled over, rubbing her eyes. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.” Immediate reaction. A dream. But what a dream; so much occurred, but the joins were strange and confusing. Going to the arcade and tumbling in space. “Just a dream.”

“Dream?” Tifa sat up and shuffled closer, laying her head on Aeris’s shoulder, pulling the sheets over her shoulders. “Sounds more like a nightmare.”

“Nightmare.” Her reaction after felt appropriate, but the events? Drifting- The dream already evaporated. “Maybe it was.”

Tifa slid her arms around Aeris. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Aeris let out a sigh and held Tifa’s arm. “Can’t hardly remember it now.” She patted. “I’m fine.” Aeris lay back on the soft mattress, Tifa moving with her, keeping her arms around her, the wonderful warmth of her skin against her. “Thank you.”

“Always.” Tifa’s words murmured and slurred, her breathing already settling. Another moment and Tifa was asleep, a few stray strands of hair dropping across her face. Kind of thing normally capable of driving Aeris crazy while she fought them back behind her ears where they would not stay. Aeris could not help the grin, fidgeting but attempting not to disturb Tifa.

Still an odd sense of wrongness about everything; some vestige of the dream? Something changed; her and the air. The detail of her dream was gone, nothing left but a lingering feeling of discomfort. Just a dream; nothing to worry about. And certainly not something she would let interfere with their journey.

A journey with Tifa; begun from a chance meeting in Midgar, and a continuation into Aeris long standing dream of getting out of the city. Shame it was not purely for a chance to spend time with Tifa; Shinra were cracking down on protests and Avalanche elected to scatter to avoid detection. Regrouping arranged for two week’s time in Cosmo Canyon. Realistically they should have headed straight there.

But they grew close in those months trekking through the wilderness. Sharing a tent, sharing rooms before advancing to sharing sleeping bags and beds. Aeris pressed a kiss to her lover’s forehead and closed her eyes. Hoping for calming dreams and morning cuddles.


End file.
